Trade deals show Brexit UK is now a rule taker
Jonathan Edwards
Speaking in Westminster in March 2023, I labelled the Northern Ireland deal signed by then Prime Minister Rishi Sunak as the beginning of the unwinding of the damage caused by the extreme Brexit pursued by the previous Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
Although limited in scope it was the beginning of the long march back to sanity.
Further steps were taken this week by the Labour UK Government as part of the EU-UK summit. The most welcome element of the announcement was an open ended sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) agreement to slash red tape on food and drink exports and imports between the UK and EU.
In many ways the complexities of the situation on the island of Ireland makes this a completely common-sense decision which will be hugely beneficial for Welsh food producers.
Someone like me would argue that the UK Government should be moving faster to reintegrate.
Reports indicate that this week’s agreement will be worth a measly 0.3% to the UK in GDP by 2040, compared to the OBR calculations that Brexit will hit the UK economy by 4% over the long term.
Isolationism
The experiment in splendid isolationism has completely failed as was obvious from the start and the UK will eventually have to rebuild the sabotaged bridges with the continent.
What seems completely obvious therefore to most impartial observers, however fails to consider the political caution of a Labour Party wary of upsetting their supporters who flocked to the Brexit banner.
We are in a game whereby focus groups are leading policy, not policy leading people.
The Prime Minister would be better advised saying it as it is: the British public were sold a pup and a decade on it’s time to call out the whole farce. This would have the added benefit of forcing Mr Farage to defend his record.
The Tory/Reform attack line of so-called ‘surrender’ was completely pathetic and completely foreseeable.
That would have been the attack line no matter what would have been agreed therefore the UK Government may as well have gone further and faster.
Regardless, this week’s announcement is a step in the right direction and all steps, even baby ones, should be welcomed.
Good optics
Developments come hot on the heels of other trade announcements, particularly an agreement with the United States. Although limited in scope, it was good optics for the Labour Party after the failure of the Tories to land a post-Brexit deal with the States.
However, the agreement only lessened the impact of Trumpian tariffs on products such as cars, so in reality Mr Trump’s bully boy tactics have worked.
What I would like to focus on however is how both the agreements highlight the weakness of the UK trade position post Brexit.
Progress with the EU requires “dynamic alignment” – which means the UK following rules set by Brussels – in areas covering the SPS deal, emissions trading and potential co-operation in the electricity market.
Dynamic alignment was the term used by Theresa May to support her policy whereby the UK would copy EU regulatory standards to stop divergence and therefore the need for checks on the economic border.
The deal this week is less ambitious than the May deal in scope from what I can see, so Starmer has delivered an agreement less ambitious than the one the House of Commons rejected in 2018.
Regardless, it is a concession that if the UK wants access to EU markets, we must follow their rules.
Restrictions
In terms of the US deal there has been much reporting across the world how the agreement forces the UK to accept US restrictions on supply chain security and ownership of certain assets.
These protocols are targeted at China. Essentially the US now has a veto over UK trade policy with a third country. I must have missed the white flag jibes.
This is unheard of in international trade deals, and is an indication of how the new US administration intends using trade deals with individual countries as part of a more aggressive wider strategy aimed at its biggest rival.
Forget the optics therefore: as many of us warned at the time, far from being a swashbuckling independent trading nation, Brexit Britannia finds itself at the mercy of far larger predators able to undermine British sovereignty at will.
Jonathan Edwards was the MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr 2010-24
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All good, apart from the comment about losing sovereignty, which is stupid!
For example, I surrender my absolute right to drive wherever I want, at any speed in order to travel safely and in the hope that I might arrive safely. If needs be I can drive in the middle or the right hand side, maybe to avoid somebody who’s decided that sovereignty requires that he drive like an idiot!
By ‘wherever I want’ I meant wherever on the road.
Interesting article
Optics: The village idiot…
The UK was always a rule taker as a member because Whitehall couldn’t be bothered to get involved in the rule making and left it to their German cousins to build something that worked. Except the rules on state aid of course, that was Thatcher’s proudest moment.
The UK was generally exceptionally highly prepared and extremely good at getting what it wanted. How it got portrayed outside the room was another thing, especially when what Ministers wanted was something they thought difficult to sell at home. Much easier to claim they were being obliged to do it. Hardly surprising it bit them in the end. I was in the room
That might explain why the supposedly unreformable EU has been busy reforming since the UK left while Westminster remains stuck in the nineteenth century.
The EC, now the EU, has been reforming continually since its inception (now having an elected parliament being a prime example).
As Lynne E correctly states, the UK was a very active participant when it was a member, notably in the area of bureaucracy which the fledgling bloc needed badly.
Are you saying we were lied to? The Brexiteers told us we had to leave because the EU was “incapable of reform” like when Cameron turned up with a list of unreasonable demands to fix his domestic agenda and didn’t immediately get it all.
The UK has been a ‘rule taker’ since we left — businesses maintain EU standards in order for them to trade with the bloc, but now have no say at all in them.
Northern Ireland, of course, remains aligned with EU single market rules for goods and therefore maintains access to this market.
Policy influenced by focus groups is always contradictory. Lower taxes and better public services? The right-wing National newspapers continue to promote a discredited agenda. These small steps to improve the lot of small businesses must be welcomed, but the headlines continue to push their readers into the arms of Farage. The Telegraph and Mail seem to be immune from economic reality.
Wales: rule taker or rule maker? How involved were the devolved governments in the post Brexit trade deals?
At present, we are semi-devolved. The case for a federal UK is getting stronger.
In my view a Federal UK is the only thing that would keep the union together. Its not in England’s interest however.
That may have changed since Covid when the imperial blob realised it had no idea how the country it was responsible for actually worked outside of London.
Perhaps the most laughable people doing the news rounds at the moment are the Brexit Brigade, their tame BBC patsies on the Today Programme, and their red top gutter press cronies … they’re all going on and on about Britain becoming a “rule taker”. As if that was not a totally predictable consequence of Brexit. If you want to make the rules at your tennis club you actually have be a club member and attend its committee meetings. If you leave the club you can no longer insist on the benefits of membership, which include playing tennis with other members… Read more »
The UK now spends more with France than before Brexit.
EDF is in charge of the new £40 billion plus power stations in Somerset and Suffolk – their IT system is in French and all French companies are already registered. UK companies have to apply to join the portal in French.
The UK Government has lost all control of reality.
According to the so-called natural party of government foreign ownership is a mark of success and a vote of confidence. The more we give away the better. Except when it’s the Telegraph. Then it’s bad for some reason.